Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon Chronicles Actor’s Death by Dildo

This video is only a segment of an Arena film’s documentary about legendary satanist and homophile filmmaker, Kenneth Anger's morbid book, Hollywood Babylon. Babylon, which was first released in 1965 and banned ten days later, dredges up Hollywood’s most sordid tales of sex, drugs and death. Needless to say, it rocked the oh so well balanced boat of the studio media machine. Upon the re-release of the book, nearly ten years after its initial banning, the New York Time had this to say, “If a book such as this can be said to have charm, it lies in the fact that here is a book without one single redeeming merit.”

Among the many famous corpses spilled over in Anger’s story is that of Ramon Novarro, a well known Latin actor, who gained stardom in the early days of Hollywood film making. According to Anger, Novarro was murdered with a large black lead Art Deco dildo, which was given to him by his lover, Hollywood’s first Latin heartthrob, Rudolpho Valentino. There’s no evidence that any of this is true, which is probably why Anger caught so much flack for Babylon. However, the apparent murderers in this case, at least according to Physique Pictorial, were a pair of brothers, one of whom appeared in a photo session for AMG under the name Paul Ferguson. Bob Mizer later wrote that Anger considered using another AMG model, Bill Murphy, in a film adaptation of Hollywood Babylon.

The Bob Mizer Foundation, Inc. believes that the most disputed works of art are the most important to the progress of society. Our mission is driven by the need to preserve Bob Mizer's archives, which include over one million photographic works, and his equipment, props, sets, and remaining personal effects. In addition, the foundation holds works by some of Mizer's contemporaries and successors, including George Quaintance, Bruce Bellas, and Dave Martin, and exhibits photographic shows by artists producing works that visually, politically, or otherwise push mainstream societal boundaries.